Results of 1,035 Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) candidates have been withheld over malpractice.
Speaking at the release of the results for academic year 2022 on Thursday, 09 February 2023, UNEB Executive Director Dan Odongo said the malpractice was mostly observed in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics, with external assistance, collusion among candidates, impersonation and script substitution as the common cases.
However, he said their security measures have resulted in a welcome reduction in the cases of malpractice.
“The number of results to be withheld has been reducing steadily at this level. Examination centres from which results are withheld will be notified through their portals,” he said.
Odongo said there was an improvement in performance in the large entry subjects except in Christian Religious Education, Biology and Commerce.
Mathematics showed better performance at the Distinction level, but declined overall, he said.
“Worth noting is that, performance in Physics and Chemistry has improved, although the overall pass levels are still low. Over 40% of the candidates have not passed the two subjects,” he said.
Odongo revealed that female candidates performed better than males in English Language.
In Chemistry, the male candidates show better performance in the higher grades but, overall, a higher percentage of females obtained at least a pass.
“We note that this year, examiners reported better quality work in English Language. However, in composition writing, where candidates are expected to exhibit creativity and originality, learners in some schools are still cramming passages from textbooks,” he said.
“In the Comprehension passage, candidates found difficulty in extracting appropriate information to use to correctly answer the questions based on the passage. There are also weaknesses in using the correct grammar in sentence construction. The essential skill of extracting main ideas from a passage and writing out a coherent summary presents a major challenge to most candidates,” he added.